When set in the Northeast or West Coast of the U.S., Blaxploitation films tend to take place in the ghetto, dealing with hit men, drug dealers and pimps. The genre frequently takes place in an atmosphere of crime and drug-dealing. Ethnic slurs against whites (e.g., "honky"), and negative white characters like corrupt cops, politicians, prostitutes and easily fooled organized crime members were common. Blaxploitation films set in the South often take place on a plantation, dealing with slavery and miscegenation.[3][4]
Blaxploitation includes several types of films, including crime (Foxy Brown), action/martial arts (Three the Hard Way), horror (Abby), comedy (Uptown Saturday Night), nostalgia (Five on the Black Hand Side), coming-of-age/courtroom drama (Cooley High/Cornbread, Earl and Me), and musical (Sparkle). The primary quality of the blaxploitation film is the targeted marketing to black audiences with the use of exploitable elements such as a black cast and subject matter of interest to African-Americans.
Following the lead of Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, many of these films featured funk and soul jazz soundtracks with heavy bass, funky beats and wah-wah guitars. These soundtracks are notable for a degree of complexity that was not common for radio-friendly funk tracks and rich orchestration that included uncommon instruments such as flutes and violins.[5]
At the same time, the films were accused of stereotyping blacks, the audience they aimed to appeal to, as pimps and drug dealers. This dovetailed with common white stereotypes about black people, and as a result, many called for the end of the blaxploitation genre. The NAACP, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the Urban League joined together to form the Coalition Against Blaxploitation. Backed by many black film professionals, this group received much media exposure and hastened the death of the genre by the late 1970s.
Blaxploitation films, such as Mandingo, laid the foundation for future filmmakers to address racial controversies regarding inner citypoverty, and in the early 1990s, a new wave of acclaimed black filmmakers focused on black urban life in their films, particularly Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing and John Singleton's Boyz N the Hood, among others.
Smith
Early Black Stereotypes in Media:
Blaxploitation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Blacksploitation)Jump to: navigation, searchBlaxploitation is a film genre that emerged in the United States in the early 1970s when many exploitation films were made that targeted an audience of urban black people; the word itself is a portmanteau of the words "black" and "exploitation." Blaxploitation films were the first to feature soundtracks of funk and soul music. These films starred primarily black actors.[1] //Variety// magazine credited Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song with the invention of the blaxploitation genre. Others argue that the Hollywood-financed film Shaft is closer to being blaxploitation, and thus is more likely to have begun the genre.[2]
Contents
[hide]* 1 Common qualities[edit] Common qualities
When set in the Northeast or West Coast of the U.S., Blaxploitation films tend to take place in the ghetto, dealing with hit men, drug dealers and pimps. The genre frequently takes place in an atmosphere of crime and drug-dealing. Ethnic slurs against whites (e.g., "honky"), and negative white characters like corrupt cops, politicians, prostitutes and easily fooled organized crime members were common. Blaxploitation films set in the South often take place on a plantation, dealing with slavery and miscegenation.[3][4]Blaxploitation includes several types of films, including crime (Foxy Brown), action/martial arts (Three the Hard Way), horror (Abby), comedy (Uptown Saturday Night), nostalgia (Five on the Black Hand Side), coming-of-age/courtroom drama (Cooley High/Cornbread, Earl and Me), and musical (Sparkle). The primary quality of the blaxploitation film is the targeted marketing to black audiences with the use of exploitable elements such as a black cast and subject matter of interest to African-Americans.
Following the lead of Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, many of these films featured funk and soul jazz soundtracks with heavy bass, funky beats and wah-wah guitars. These soundtracks are notable for a degree of complexity that was not common for radio-friendly funk tracks and rich orchestration that included uncommon instruments such as flutes and violins.[5]
[edit] Stereotypes
At the same time, the films were accused of stereotyping blacks, the audience they aimed to appeal to, as pimps and drug dealers. This dovetailed with common white stereotypes about black people, and as a result, many called for the end of the blaxploitation genre. The NAACP, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the Urban League joined together to form the Coalition Against Blaxploitation. Backed by many black film professionals, this group received much media exposure and hastened the death of the genre by the late 1970s.Blaxploitation films, such as Mandingo, laid the foundation for future filmmakers to address racial controversies regarding inner city poverty, and in the early 1990s, a new wave of acclaimed black filmmakers focused on black urban life in their films, particularly Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing and John Singleton's Boyz N the Hood, among others.
Hollywood Shuffle
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, searchKeenen Ivory Wayans
Robert Townsend
Craigus R. Johnson
Dom Irrera
Helen Martin
John Witherspoon
Keenen Ivory Wayans
Robert Townsend
Roy Fegan
Starletta DuPois
Grand L. Bush